Off into the Andes: Pueblo Guatavita

Bogotá, as I mentioned before, is a stinking hellhole. Don’t get me wrong, I love it here, but it also often sucks. Plus it’s been really cold and wet the last two weeks. So we try to get out of here as often as possible.

Yesterday we went to Guatavita, a little mountain village 75km north of Bogotá. The original village was sacrificed when the valley was turned into a reservoir in the 1960s. The new Guatavita was built by for the displaced community on the mountain slope above the reservoir. It was rebuilt true to the colonial style, with whitewashed houses and many elements taken from the culture of the Muisca, the indigenous people of the Andean eastern range. The fountain for example shows the cacique of Guatavita.

It is a very peaceful and quiet town, you can take a stroll along the reservoir, eat in one of the many restaurants (don’t miss out on the fabulous desert-stalls), and shop for souvenirs. But the biggest attraction in the area is the Laguna Guatavita, a circular lake in the mountains, center of many legends and myths. But more on that in different post.

The surrounding landscape is beautiful, green and lush in the lower areas, and spectacular and pine-covered on the higher slopes of the Andes. If you take a walk here you will feel the 3.000m of altitude, that will leave you out of breath pretty soon. If you have time, stay over night, the white village is beautiful in the dark!

Buses to Guatavita leave from the Terminal del Norte, and take about 1.5 hours.

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